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'He goes free': Family in agony after parole board releases murderer to Sudbury halfway house

They're struggling to understand how man who murdered their parents could be freed
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Donna and Arnold Edwards were murdered by George Harding Lovie in 1991. (Supplied)

The family of murder victims Donna and Arnold Edwards were still in shock Wednesday, a day after the man who killed the couple in 1991 was granted parole to a halfway house in Greater Sudbury.

Former NHL goalie Don Edwards, who has worked to get the story out to the media in recent years as parole became a real possibility, said it's incomprehensible to him the Parole Board of Canada agreed to release George Harding Lovie, now 61.

“I felt like we got stabbed yesterday,” Edwards said. “I felt like our self-esteem, our dignity was absolutely stripped from us.”

Lovie was convicted of the double murder, as well as the attempted murder of Don's sister, Michele, with whom he had a brief relationship. 

Lovie was out on bail on charges of sexual assault and forcible confinement of Michele when the murders took place. 

Edwards said Tuesday Lovie confined Michele for several hours during the assault, holding a knife to her throat. But those charges weren't pursued when the murder charges were laid.

After he was freed on bail in 1991, he hid under Michele's porch overnight, chasing her across the street to her parents' place, where he killed Donna and Arnold Edwards – and tried to kill their daughter Michele. 

The system let them down then, by allowing him to go free on bail, and again on Tuesday, Edwards said.

At the parole hearing at the Beaver Creek Institution in Gravenhurst, the two-person board told the family their victim impact statements couldn't include information about the sexual assault, because it was never dealt with in court.

“We had to redact factual information from our victim impact statements,” Edwards said. “The board members said they had already read them.”

After failing to have his full parole approved in 2016, Lovie was granted six unescorted passes by the parole board to travel to Sudbury for temporary stays. 

A split decision in July on granting him parole led to another hearing Tuesday, the family's fourth hearing in the last four years. They had a feeling this one would be different, Edwards said, and for the first time in years, Michele sat in the same room as Lovie to witness the decision.

“Normally, she's in an isolated room and records (her statement) on video, but her face is not shown. This time, she actually came right in the room at the last minute. We were not expecting that at all, with him there.”

It seemed to him and the rest of the family the parole board was asking Lovie softball questions aimed at easing his release, rather than the sort of questions you'd expect if public safety was the priority. 

“The questions were very, very weak. We've seen other board members at hearings ask questions that were very, very direct, that tried to make Lovie accountable for his actions. ... But we were dealing with a parole board that's weak.”

He was sitting so close to him, Edwards said he was tempted to punch Lovie in the head – but resisted. Now Lovie is coming to Sudbury without a job, without money, and planning to have knee replacement surgery on both knees.

“On the taxpayers' dime,” Edwards said. “What about my parents?”

It feels like Lovie received a gruesome two-for-one deal, in which he commits two murders, but only has to serve time for one.

“Was my dad the freebie?” he said sarcastically.

If he has no issues over the first six months, he will be granted full parole, Edwards said, and can go anywhere he wants.

“And he said he wants to come to Hamilton, which is the heart of the Edwards family,” he said. “We're targets now. They can say what they want. They (the parole board) should be ashamed of what happened. They should be ashamed.”

His sister is traumatized yet again, Edwards said, and his family is dealing with PTSD that they are struggling to cope with through therapy and medication. While

Lovie seems to have access to endless appeals, there's nothing his family can do to fight the parole board decision.

“We have no avenue of appeal on anything. We sat there and took it in the teeth. We just took the body punches. We took them all and can't do a damn thing. And now he's (coming to) your town.” 

Edwards said he's writing a book about the ordeal, one he hopes will open some eyes about what victims go through when they encounter the criminal justice system.

“I can assure you we are dealing with a crime that goes on and on for us. But this guy? He goes free.”


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Darren MacDonald

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